The naming of suspects and the public interest

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Is it better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer?The Kobal Collection

Last updated at 12:01AM, May 7 2013

Are we prepared to ruin a person’s reputation by naming them in public based on an anonymous person’s evidence?

Sir, When suspects are charged they should be named because the court process
has effectively begun, and there is a paramount public interest in it being
open to scrutiny (“Publicity
over arrest put Hall in the dock”, report, May 3). Before charge the
public interest argument is much weaker. Some suspects attend voluntarily
for questioning. They are not generally named. Whether to arrest or invite
attendance at the station is in the discretion of the police. We cannot be
sure that they always exercise it correctly, and there seems no good reason
why naming suspects should depend on whether